As I sit in the safe haven of my own bedroom, sat at a laptop typing away, it is hard to comprehend the events of last night. Graphic images on the TV screen presented in high definition clarity offer only the merest insight. There is no terror here, not now, just the rain and the occasional sound of a passing car. For today the terror is over, it waits to strike again and it will, as certain as the rain outside will fall again. Today is a day for reflection, a day for reason to hold firm over passion, and to try, just try to understand what the hell is going on in the world.
The savage butchering of the innocent is nothing new, and yet every time it happens there are reverberations that strike at the very soul of every community, none more so than in larger cities where these acts have occurred before, or are likely to be targets in the future. We clamour for justice, we beseech our politicians to act and we expect the future to be safer, somehow more secure than what was before. This is natural.
Acts of barbarism carried out in the name of religion are historical canon. They have been carried out since historical records began. There have been genocides, patricides, homicides and every other ‘cide’ you could care to mention all performed in the name of a God. It doesn’t matter which God is the one to which the innocent become sacrificial lambs to, only that for some they believe this is done for a higher purpose. That is the farcical nature of humanity. We strive to improve, to better ourselves. We look to colonise other worlds when we cannot even come to terms with the simple logic that there is no higher power, there is no superhuman being that we are answerable to. Ultimately, we are answerable only to ourselves. Immortality and virgins, vestal or otherwise, are a fallacy that we created to make our own peace with the transience of a lifetime that is not even a blink in the eye of history. Religion was something that came about to explain the unexplained, to find solace in the notion that we all have some predetermined path to follow. This is of course, a logic that cannot be followed, it simply allows us an excuse to betray our own intuition and commit actions that are not done for any other reason than self-gratification.
Is there a solution to end this? Yes. I have thought long and hard over this and argued logic against reason, compassion against passion and there is a way. There has to be, doesn’t there? It will not prevent the events of last night being repeated. That another attack, or more, is imminent is purely conjecture right now but the die has been cast and it will happen, it is just a matter of when and where. The answer lays not in short term gains but in long term thinking, and at times, not turning the other cheek but not either looking for a short term rebuke. Acting in the heat of the moment when the thirst for revenge is prevalent is perhaps impossible to counter, but we simply must keep trying.
So many times following tragedies like last nights, we see polarisation of opinion. When this happens is proves not only futile but counterproductive in seeking a logical choice of action. There is clamour for blood right now and yes, as horrible as that it is, it is also understandable. Radicalisation is a dirty word but the key here is to try to see how it happens. With understanding comes knowledge, and with knowledge there is a chance, however small that even though this will not be the last attack of this horrifying nature, it could be seen as the one that turned the tide.
War is not an option. It would be all too easy to go out and drop nuclear warheads on swathes of open desert. We can carry out as many drone strikes or retaliatory means of delivering death as we have at our disposal but they only serve as an incentive for further bloodshed. You see, these actions that are carried out are done so for a very solid reason. They want a reaction. The number of individuals that actively seek to bring this sort of terror to the hearts of nations untouched by war for so long are both simple and clear. When was the last battle fought on open ground in a western country? The battles we fight as nations are remote and distant to those not involved, in desert lands and hyphenated villages that mean little to those that have never been there.
What these people do is bring the war to us on our shores, at the moment thankfully, only in our minds. The evil that was performed last night on the world stage may be staked as an act of war but it wasn’t. It was cowardly and foul, both heart wrenching and brutal but above all else it was done to serve a very deliberate purpose.
Already today I have seen social media explode. The huge majority of posts and tweets are crystal clear in their condemnation of the events that unfolded, showing a solidarity with peace and perhaps the CND adopted peace logo, with an Eiffel tower, that was once a common sight in Vietnam and amongst the Greenham common demonstrators of the 80’s is the most apt, for the answer to this is peace, not war, in the long term.
The problem we face is the fundamentalists are not idiotic, moron like savages in their thinking or modus operandi. There have been numerous posts calling for the Western world to reap devastation on far flung lands. Lunatic fringe groups within our own country such as that ‘favourite’ of mine, Britain First, are already drawing up their next set of adverts and posts to incite us to hate, to despise and to ultimately fight. They are trying to rationalise that hatred is the way forward, that revenge is the most important thing. They seek to engender a natural hatred of Islam, of foreign ways and cultures. By doing so they are naïve enough to think they will force our population to stand up, to fight against the infidels. By doing so they are doing exactly what the lunatic element from the Islamic community want. Xenophobia will bring nothing but pain and more bloodshed. If the desire to ‘fight’ is so strong perhaps they would be better advised to join the Armed Forces. The clamour for ‘boots on the ground’ is nauseating in the sense that even though some form of action will be necessary, those who call for it are never those who do it themselves.
Having served, I can honestly say that those in our Forces are amongst the very best in the world. Who are you to call for them to fight on your behalf? Who are you to sit and watch Gogglebox and call for Wooton Bassett to become a Royal village, when it is the result of your sense of terror and injustice that results in the bodies being bagged up and brought home. Should the subject matter be of that much importance to you, should your bloodlust be strong enough then surely the boots on the grounds must belong to you, not some poor youth who dies at your behest so you can indulge in a weekend of wine, drugs and debauchery in ‘safety’. We can all fight battles from the sofa with a remote control and a takeaway, it is easy. Deliberate and don’t procrastinate. Blood being spilled is an awful sight, the death of any man or woman a tragedy, so don’t wish for it. I would genuinely lay down my life for what I believe in, but not for your beliefs. They are yours, so back them up or shut up.
Anyway, the solution. To arrive at any solution you must understand the problem in the first instance. It is clear by some of the more rabid posts I have seen that the problem is seen simply as Islam being a rogue religion. It isn’t. It is a flag that is flown only as a means to breed even more hatred, and by allowing ourselves to hate we actually exacerbate the problem. It has been hijacked by a lunatic fringe and is now being used to suit its own agenda, an agenda that is working in ways that the fanatics could not have even wished for in their wildest, most polluted dreams.
Firstly, the leaders of moderate and not so moderate Middle Eastern states must speak as one. They must condemn not only the actions of those who claim to represent them but suffocate them at source. The blatant hypocrisy is almost so transparent it appears that the Western world is seeing a new Emperor in his shiniest new clothes. The countries that support these barbarians are only able to do so because of the huge wealth that is generated by trading with the West. They care little if we fly over remote parts of Syria dropping bombs because for every sortie that is flown the cash register rings for them. For every time we fill up our car we indirectly arm our enemy. It is our reliance on the goods that these countries provide that see us held hostage at negotiating tables. We must learn from this and counter it, and soon. Technology advances at such a rapid rate that we sometimes forget that the means on which our entire infrastructure is set is based on quicksand. When we learn that the source for fulfilment lays not in faster cars, faster aircraft or bigger TV’s but in social interaction, compassion and principled living we can set ourselves free from the trap we have inadvertently set for ourselves.
If the leaders of these religious states cannot see reason through bloodshed, and they haven’t, then the answer is in depriving them of what they crave, power and money. To quote a certain Tony Montana, first you get the money, then you get the power. Remove the money, you remove the power. Power corrupts and I ask all Muslims teetering on the edge of joining a Jihad to view this in the simplest of terms. You are being asked to die not for a religious ideal, not for a means to save your homelands but because your deified Kings and Sultans like the very things that they are wont to portray to you as evil. Western comforts. How ironic that whilst you are going to die fighting against an enemy with jet engines made by Rolls Royce, your spiritual leaders are viewing the Rolls Royce catalogue to buy next year’s latest soft top. They are trading your lives for their power. Don’t let them. Do not buy into the foolish notion they care, for they don’t.
Secondly, here in western homes we must learn lessons. In the short term we must be tolerant. Not of the atrocities that are committed, of course not, but of our own governments. We elected them democratically and they are not to blame for yesterday’s events. These atrocities are happening because of previous governments, not the ones currently serving, and we must be mindful of that. This not a Tory seal of approval or a condemnation of Labour, either old or new. We have interfered in world affairs for far too long, spanning many governments and leaders. We have fought wars we had no reason to fight, and we have ourselves caused death and destruction on a scale that dwarves’ last night’s events. It is not enough to just suggest that we forget this in light of recent attacks, when we clamour for the very revenge that some feel is justifiably being brought to bear against us now.
Invasion of foreign lands is commonplace but there will always be repercussions, especially when those lands are bonded more by religious and political ideals than geographical borders. In most instances the borders that exist now have been subjugated upon the population to fulfil Western political aims. We have stirred up far more than a hornets nest in recent history. Some wars had to be fought but there are many, far too many, that have been the result of financial and political posturing as opposed to the very ideals for which people could and perhaps sometimes should lay down their lives.
Amateur historians and liberal thinkers will often talk of post-colonial guilt as though it is an invalid argument. It isn’t. It is real and has a very real, lasting legacy that is being played out now. We once conquered lands in the search of riches and power. We then destroyed, in many instances, the fabric of those societies which had developed over millennia. In the short term we promised the world but delivered in its stead, the vacuum that becomes inevitable when these promises were reneged upon. Does it mean we should accept what is happening now? Only a fool would suggest that, but to ignore the reasoning’s behind the events is to display only our own arrogance and ignorance.
As a consequence, for our own security we must allow those in control of that security to be able to do their jobs. They do it very well. If you really believe that they are collecting your e-mail data so that you can be sold down the river you are not naïve, you are stupid. A mosquito net will admittedly make a bedroom look less aesthetically pleasing but it will prevent the vast majority of insects getting through. Our security networks operate on that very same basis, they are not infallible but they good and ever so occasionally need to be strengthened. No disrespect to anti-establishment Scottish comics or faux cockney bearded Lotharios, but you are the biggest hypocrites of all when it comes to releasing soundbites around Christmas time.
The last two attacks of major significance occurred on our doorstep yes, not in our own homes. This is not a coincidence born from good fortune, rather the bloody hard work that goes on behind closed doors, in secret bunkers and in the death of serving personnel. It should be respected for what it is, not criticised for the paradox that it infringes our civil liberties. It serves to ensure we have those very liberties in the first place. To offer up another argument may serve you well in political gain but not in the face of reasoned debate.
As for the third part of the solution it is the simplest thing of all, but perhaps the hardest to enact. The Muslim communities in our societies must not be ostracised, far from it. It is actually the thing that would appear churlish even foolhardy to do right now, when grief overplays reason. We must actively seek to embrace those communities that right now are beginning to feel the very real backlash that is being deliberately stirred up. We must not seek to apportion blame to more innocent people. If we create a state where it is seen as very much us and them, then we live in a state that will always be victim to this sort of tragedy. Let us provide confidence that we want to live side by side, peacefully and that those now feared are actually those that will save us.
I do not believe for one minute that a fundamentalist, a radical thinker is born that way. It is a process that happens. Any process can be observed when looked for, whether it is the erosion of a cliff face or a sudden volcanic eruption. The Muslim community must now stand up as one. It is the only choice. You are aware of those who are not true to your own beliefs, which seek to corrupt and destroy it. You can see the next Abu Hamza in your mosques and in your communities. They are the ones who you choose to ignore, to pretend don’t exist, but they do. You must now act, you must now stand up to be counted whatever the price you must pay, because those bombers in Paris will one day be your own children if you turn a blind eye. Your religion is now at a critical point in its evolution. You can choose to take it back or continue to let it fester but if that is your choice, then you must accept that the blame has now passed in equal measure to not only those who commit the crime, but those who condone it through silence and impassivity.
Accepting there is a problem is the first step in curing it and that is where you play a part. Turn in these preachers of hate. Turn in these men who want nothing more than a slice of power for which your families are now becoming very real targets for a growing xenophobic movement that will catch up with you if allowed to continue. One of my favourite quotes is roughly this. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing. To date, you have not done enough. Now is the time, not tomorrow, or next week. You know who these people are. Act upon your conscience, don’t be held back by fear of reprisal for the cost now is already too high.
When seeking the truth, when evidence is scarce or doctored there is a very simple truism. Seek to find the side that gains most by the lie. Follow that logic and you will find peace. Nobody tells a lie to lose, only to gain, no matter how it is dressed up or presented.
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